Furloughs could reduce child care assistance

May. 9, 2013 - 06:00AM
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Thiqueta Beasley, a Family Child Care provider, and her daughter, Kei'lani, put together a toy train track in her home March 29 at Hascom Air Force Base, Mass. Beasley was recently named as Hanscom's 2012 Provider of the Year. (Linda LaBonte Britt/Air Force)

* Only open during summer months ** CDC Construction/Renovation projects will add additional spacesNOTE 1: Data is from September 2012 NOTE 2: Parents may be on multiple wait lists at an installation for different types of careSoure: Child Development Center, Family Child Care & School-Age Program

The threat of furloughs for 180,000 Air Force civilian employees could leave airmen scrambling to find child care.

Furlough notices for Defense Department employees are slated to start arriving in the coming weeks, forcing thousands to take unpaid leave starting in June and lasting through seven biweekly pay periods until the end of September, according to Defense officials.

Civilians make up about 25 percent of the child care support staff at Air Force installations and nearly 100 percent of management and administrative teams responsible for health and safety standards, said Lt. Gen. Darrell Jones, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, and Daniel Ginsberg, assistant Air Force secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, in prepared testimony for the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee.

To maintain mandated standards, child care centers could be forced to reduce hours of operation, reduce the number of children in certain age classes to maintain the adult-to-child ratio and even force working parents to either adjust their work hours or find off-base care at higher cost, according to the testimony.

Service officials are also expecting budget cuts and sequestration to thwart attempts to create more capacity at base child care centers, many of which already have long waiting lists. The Air Force is undergoing construction projects at 10 bases to increase child care capacity forcewide by 750, according to the testimony.

Delayed construction and reduced class sizes could mean even longer waiting listsat a time when community-based funding for these programs has been cut.

Candace M.E. Bird, chief of Air Force Child and Youth Programs, said the service looks at all the possible issues that could be created by sequestration and no specific strategy decisions have been made.

“As we move forward, our goal is to minimize any impacts in this area and maintain the best support possible to help maintain ready, resilient airmen and families,” Bird said in an emailed statement.